Identification of the Dead and Injured
Identifying who actually died takes some time reading all the articles as they were not consistent or accurate in spelling their names. Some newspapers closer to the accident got the names right but omitted others. So this research compiles all news articles that we have found in order to arrive at a true and complete list of injured and dead. The immediate deceased were named in several articles as Harmon Teaster, Joe Turner the engineer, Merritt Burgin, Harvey “Harve” Briggs, and Frank Plate. They were gathered from the explosion field and laid out next to one of the mill buildings. A photographer shot their pictures and we have the one photograph of Harmon Teaster while the other men’s photographs remain unfound.
The compiled list of the injured men are D.B. Wilson, later defined as Daniel Boone Wilson the lumber inspector, Edmond Lytle, J.W. Jones, Harry Cook, John Kilpatrick, George Allen Massey, Frank Briggs, James George Suttle, Horace Clark, and William Henry Lytle. Notice that most likely Harvey “Harve” Briggs and Frank Briggs were brothers or father and son since Harvey was only 14 years old. It was said in one of the articles that Horace Clark passed through Newport a few days after the incident while headed home and was scalded about the hands and face. Many lighter injuries were probably never reported. From what I can see, Horace Clark’s tombstone also has a wrong death date as well as William Harmon Teaster, which will be corrected this year.
background photo courtesy of Tennessee Historical Society
Tennessee State Library and Archives
photo of Big Hill Cemetery, Del Rio, Tennessee
